Re: medical misadventures

[Richard Smart <R.Smart@unsw.edu.au>]

Dear Bill, 



At 07:18 6/09/01 -0400, William V Lipton wrote:  

>>>> 



> Virtually every major event at a power reactor is reviewed by other power

> reactors to determine whether they are vulnerable to a simlar event, and

> corrective actions are taken, as appropriate.  I don't see that happening

> in the medical hp community.  Informal information exchange is important,

> but you should also have procedures that assure documented reviews of key

> events.  

> 

> 

> 

I can assure you that reviews of incidents DOES occur in the medical

community.  In NSW Australia, we have an informal organisation known as

HURSOG (Hospital and University Radiation Safety Officer's Group). 



At our meetings, every 2 months, one of the most important standing agenda

items is a discussion of radiation incidents, including medical

misadministrations.  Significant changes in procedures have occurred as a

result of these discussions.  This has led to the preparation of guidelines,

in conjunction with the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear

Medicine, to minimise misadministrations in nuclear medicine procedures, .

These guidelines are available at:

http://www.anzsnm.org.au/physics/papers/maladmin.pdf 



The adoption of these guidelines has significantly reduced the incidents. 



Kind regards 



Richard 











Richard Smart PhD 

Principal Physicist and Radiation Safety Officer 

Nuclear Medicine Department 

St. George Hospital 

Kogarah 

NSW, 2217, Australia 

Tel: (61 2) 9350 3129 

Fax: (61 2) 9350 3991 

email: r.smart@unsw.edu.au

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